Ripple hits all time high

The company's Asian subsidiary and a group of Japanese financial services companies announced a consortium earlier on Wednesday.

It was trading at $1.26 a coin Thursday at 4:18 p.m. ET.

XRP, the cryptocurrency made by Ripple that is focused on bank transfers, hit a fresh all-time high Thursday of $1.30 a coin, according to Markets Insider data. It started December at around $0.25 a coin.

The cryptocurrency, which is up 71% this week, has been on a tear since Ripple's Asian subsidiary and a group of Japanese credit card companies announced a new consortium Wednesday. The consortium aims to identify how blockchain and distributed ledger technology can be deployed in credit card payments.